D. E. Shaw
Quantitative Analyst intern
Application
The same seat other firms call quant researcher; PhD and undergraduate applicants sit the same loop. The form asks how many lines of code you have written in each language, and interviewers ask about it, so do not inflate it. Some applicants sit a hard coding assessment about two weeks after applying, sometimes in place of the first round.
First round
Virtual interview · 45–60 min
A video call with a researcher, not a recruiter. Ten to twenty minutes on your research with "why that approach" follow-ups, then two or three probability, statistics or algorithm problems talked through without code. The minimum number of comparisons to find the heaviest of n, with a proof, is the most common question.
Sit this round →Virtual onsite, first block
Virtual interview · 2 × 60 min
A morning of back-to-back one-hour interviews on video after signing a non-disclosure agreement. Every interviewer opens on your research, from a different angle each time because they read each other's notes, then gives problems: probability and statistics with one researcher, live coding in Python with a developer, complexity included.
probabilitySit this round →codingSit this round →Mid-block cut
If the first two interviews scored too low, the block ends here.
Virtual onsite, third interview
Virtual interview · 60 min
A VP with open-ended modelling: predict a baseball team's wins starting from the simplest model, design the test of a claim about an elevator button, why irregular trains make you wait longer. Assumptions get pushed on more than answers get checked.
Sit this round →Virtual onsite, senior block
Virtual interview · 2 × 60 min
Another day, two more senior people, sometimes a single SVP. More of the hour on your research, at the level of a specific slide or equation, then statistics in depth (R² with two regressors, what duplicated data does to a t-statistic, combining two noisy scales) and a harder problem.
statisticsSit this round →researchSit this round →Hiring manager
Virtual interview · ~45 min
Last, and not always held for interns: the manager of the group, behavioural questions from the firm's published guide (a decision without a clear answer, an approach that changed with new information), sometimes some maths, then your questions.
Sit this round →References and samples
After the onsite, before any decision: at least one academic and one professional reference, plus a code sample and a writing sample. Interview feedback is reviewed only at this point, so candidates are turned down here.
Decision
A call or an email, often weeks after the references. The firm sets no deadline on offers. Timelines from first round to decision of one to three months are common.
Reconstructed from first-hand candidate reports and the firm's own published material. Problems in this track are original and format-faithful; nothing is copied from a live interview.